Hope in the wilderness

"At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him" (Mark 1:12-13).

These verses are about Jesus. They occurred immediately after Jesus was baptized publicly by John, and all seemed to be going well. A large crowd had gathered.

John the Baptist (as he was known) publicly tells the crowd that Jesus is the one for whom they have been waiting -- the Savior. During the baptism, people in the crowd even heard the voice of God affirming the place of Jesus as exalted and as the one whom they were to listen to (see Mark 1:11). Everything was going in a great direction. The momentum seemed to be flowing Jesus's way. Then we get to verses 12 and 13. After all of this momentum, the very Spirit of God quickly ("at once") leads Jesus into the wilderness for forty days. Nothing can interrupt a public occasion of recognition and acknowledgement like disappearing from public view for 40 days. It would be like a rock band getting a number one hit and then refusing to go on tour right away.

Yet, this is the path Jesus follows. Instead of relying upon public praise or fame, Jesus retreats to prepare for the next steps in his public ministry. Instead of riding a wave of recognition or even his own personal charisma, Jesus opts for time away to deepen his sense of calling, to deny himself and to acknowledge that his effectiveness will be fueled by intimacy with God, which for him was the priority.

Sometimes the wilderness times -- the in-between times when we begin to question our own value -- are not directly caused by God. Instead, the choices of others, our own choices or a combination of the two bring about a removal from what we know to be normal. These can be times of great isolation and questioning. They can be difficult, because we are removed from what we have come to call "normal."

At other times, the wilderness is a place where we are called. This means we are called away from commonly accepted definitions of success or fame or even prosperity, to re-evaluate our lives and our priorities. Both "kinds" of wilderness can bring out times of isolation, temptation and questioning.

The good news is that regardless of the kind of wilderness we are in or the cause of our current wilderness wanderings, there is hope. Like Jesus, we can draw upon the strength God provides. Our "ministering angels" can be real-life people whom God places in our paths to comfort us, listen to us, pray with us and teach us. We can also remain focused on the big picture of God's redemptive goals for our lives. God created us, God can redeem us and God seeks our genuine good, even if that doesn't always look like we think it should.

Finally, we can rely on biblical patterns when it comes to time in the wilderness. From the earliest parts of the Bible (see the Book of Exodus, for instance), human beings have wanted the "pattern" to go something like this: time in the wilderness, God calls us, and then a new beginning. However, and this is crucial especially for those who may be experiencing their own "in between" time right now, the biblical pattern (as for Jesus) goes more like this: God calls, a time of wilderness and then a new beginning. That means that wilderness times are not the end of the story. Instead, they are preparations for something new and even better.